4. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
Meyer's film was originally supposed to be a sequel to fabulous but trashy Valley of the Dolls, but instead comes across as a pastiche of the film. It was Meyer's first work for a major studio - 20th Century Fox - and when they got the final product, they were utterly gobsmacked. The film follows the fortunes of the Carrie Nations - a girl band - and the travails that they get into - including unplanned pregnancy, lesbian affairs, domestic violence, drugs and complicated relationships. Central to the action is the freaky Z-Man, an accomplished record producer who throws wild parties and encourages the girls of the Carrie Nations to behave abominably. At the end of the film, Z-Man is revealed to be a woman in drag and he goes berserk and kills loads of people. To counteract the misery, the film ends in a triple wedding. It is very hard to pigeonhole Beyond the Valley of the Dolls into a single film genre. It is a (melo)drama, a horror film, a comedy, sexploitation all rolled into one. It is, like all of Russ Meyer's films, very individualistic and full of dark humour. Everything is so over the top and hilarious, you can't help but laugh along with the film, wondering what Meyer is going to throw at the screen next. All tastes are catered for in the film and it is a wonderful, and much more intelligent spoof on Valley of the Dolls. It makes Valley of the Dolls look completely gauche and naive because its wild side is much closer to truth about Hollywood than the original. Roger Ebert co-wrote the script - Pulitzer prize winning critic Roger Ebert.